The influence of symbolic and motor rehearsal in observational learning

The experiment investigated the effects of the mode and patterning of rehearsal on the acquisition and retention of modeled activities varying in organizational complexity. Subjects observed a filmed model construct two configurations, containing high or low organizational requirements. Immediately after exposure they rehearsed the modeled activities either mentally, motorically, mentally and then motorically, motorically and then mentally, or engaged in a distracting activity that prevented rehearsal of what they had see. Performance tests were conducted immediately after the rehearsal phase and again 1 week later. Subjects who rehearsed the modeled behaviors symbolically, whether singly or in conjunction with motor practice, reproduced both configurations more accurately than those who rehearsed motorically or not at all. Motor rehearsal increased speed on the organizationally simple task, but did not enhance response acquisition over and above observation alone. The overall results are interpreted as supporting the social learning view that modeled behaviors are best acquired when demonstrated activities are first organized symbolically and then refined on the basis of performance feedback.     

Writers and critics: Two types of vocational consciousness in the art system

Vocational interests, personality, work environment, and background of authors and critics, male and female, in children's literature are examined in terms of Holland's theory of vocational types, supplemented with concepts of an art system and styles of consciousness. On SVIB indicator scales, both authors and critics score as artistic types with “consistent” profiles, but authors are more “differentiated.” Critics have stronger social interests and less aversion to conventional activities, appropriate to their position as gate-keepers in the art system. In work style there are again common features, but authors describe themselves as having “alternative” states of consciousness, where critics emphasize their social roles and rationality. Both groups have peaks on Achievement via Independence (CPI), but the critics are more socially ascendant, efficient, and conventional. Most critics have full-time employment under institutional auspices; most writers do not. Difference in occupations of fathers of authors and critics are consistent with interest patterns of the subjects. Several personality and background findings, including interactions between sex and field, are interpreted as supporting the usefulness of supplementing Holland's theory.     

Effects of performance expectancies created by peer comparison as related to social reinforcement,task difficulty,and age of child

Children in kindergarten-first grades and fourth-sixth grades (6 and 10 years of age, respectively) participated in one of two experiments and performed either a simple motor task or (for older children only) a two-choice simultaneous discrimination task at two difficulty levels. Children received either positive, negative, or no peer comparison statements (describing how other children their age had allegedly performed) and either praise, silence (in Experiment 2 only), or criticism on a fixed-interval 20-second schedule throughout the task. Young children were more responsive to adult evaluation of their performance than to peer comparison. Expectancies created by peer comparisons affected older children's motor performance most if they received reinforcement contrary to the expectancy. In situations requiring greater cognitive ability, older children, particularly boys, responded to the performance expectancies created by positive peer comparison. Older boys, compared with older girls, seemed to be more sensitive to peer comparison and social reinforcement.     

Natural anchoring at the neutral point of category rating scales

Contextual theories of judgment assume that the rating of any stimulus depends on its relationship to a context of similar stimuli. For example, any specific act of behavior would be rated less favorably when considered in the context of good behaviors then when considered in the context of bad ones. However, two experiments suggest an absolute anchoring of the natural neutral point, an exception to this generalization. In Experiment 1, morally indifferent acts remained “neutral,” regardless of context; and in Experiment 2 the break-even or zero-point in a simulated game of chance was always rated “neutral.” In both experiments, contextual manipulations had powerful effects upon ratings of other stimuli, though never shifting them across the neutral point. Furthermore, both experiments suggest that neutral-point anchoring also affects the use of the most extreme categories in a manner that is unique to this phenomena. In Experiment 2 for example, the introduction of extremely positive “wins” not only made other wins seem less favorable while leaving ratings of the zero-point unchanged, but also made the most negative losses seem more favorable. It is as if the introduction of an extremely positive “win” also introduces the possibility of an extremely negative “loss.” Taken together these findings contradict the basic adaptation-level premise that the entire scale is determined by the neutral point; they are also inconsistent with the assumption of range theories that the scale is anchored by the endpoints of the range of stimuli actually experienced.     

Organizational vs retrieval factors in the development of digit span

Three possible sources of memory span growth were tested with a modified version of the digit span task using subjects 6, 8, 11, and 19 years of age. There was no developmental trend in facilitation due to experimenter-imposed organization of the input strings, ruling out simple input-organizational theories. The notion that children are deficient at organizing retrieved information was also found to be untenable. The data support the view that older subjects use more selective retrieval strategies, strategies which are better suited to the encoded material. The largest improvement in retrieval selectivity occurred between sixth grade and college. Recency effects were smaller for the younger subjects than for older subjects, with first graders showing significantly less recency than third graders, sixth graders, and college students. Improved item identification during input may account for this finding.     

Cerebral lateralization of function and bilingual decision processes: Is thinking lateralized?

Four experiments utilizing tachistoscopic presentation of verbal and spatial stimuli to visual half-fields are presented. Three experiments failed to find any cerebral lateralization effect of the type predicted from existing models of cerebral lateralization processes. One experiment found marked lateralization effects. Since the experiments differ only in the ratio of trials to experimental stimuli, it is argued that cerebral lateralization experiments are detecting only a memory process occurring after subjects have learned all the stimuli to be presented. When new stimuli are presented on each trial, no cerebral lateralization effects are found, suggesting that active ongoing cognitive processing is independent of lateralization.     

Relationships between the Vocational Preference Inventory and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule

The Vocational Preference Inventory and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule were administered to 372 undergraduates. The two instruments were compared using canonical analysis. The analysis revealed three significant relationships between components of the two instruments. The relationships were viewed as supportive of Holland's theory of personality types.     

Mental rotation of random two-dimensional shapes

Two experiments are reported in which Ss were required to determine whether a random, angular form, presented at any of a number of picture-plane orientations, was a “standard” or “reflected” version. Average time required to make this determination increased linearly with the angular departure of the form from a previously learned orientation. The slope and intercept of the reaction-time (RT) function were virtually constant, regardless of the perceptual complexity of the test form and the orientation selected for initial learning.When Ss were informed in advance as to the identity and the orientation of the upcoming test form and, further, were permitted to indicate when they were prepared for its external presentation, RT for determining the version of the form was constant for all test-form orientations. However, the time needed to prepare for the test-form presentation increased linearly with the angular departure of the form from the learned orientation.It is argued that the processes both of preparing for and of responding to a disoriented test form consist of the mental rotation of an image, and that both sorts of mental rotation (pre-stimulus and post-stimulus) are carried out at essentially the same constant rate.     

Memory for orientation of forms as a function of their meaningfulness and complexity.

Accuracy of memory for left-right orientation of single figures varying in meaningfulness and complexity was studied in subjects from kindergarten to adulthood. Complexity was an unimportant variable. Orientation of meaningful figures was remembered better than orientation of nonmeaningful figures at all ages. There were no developmental differences in memory for meaningful figures beyond kindergarten, but pronounced developmental differences were found in memory for nonmeaningful figures. It was proposed that a decision to store orientation information is dependent upon a judgment about the meaningfulness of a presented figure, and that young children have more difficulty than adults in finding meaningfulness in unfamiliar forms. The decision to store appears to occur automatically, since there was only a small difference between conditions in which subjects were informed or not informed to remember orientation. It was also suggested that part of the often reported difficulty in remembering diagonal orientation may be due to the symmetry of the diagonal forms typically investigated.